Rivers: Procurement Act was disservice to people—Sekibo

From  NWADIKE UGOCHUKWU, Port Harcourt
Posted: Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Rivers State Procurement Act, a 2010 law enacted by the state House of Assembly with a view to supplying guidelines in the Appropriation Accounts has been described as obnoxious and intended to institutionalize corruption in the polity.
 Addressing a large crowd of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) supporters at the Degema Council field, the party's governorship candidate in Rivers State, Dr. Abiye Sekibo stated that the Procurement Act was a disservice done to the people of the state by the Assembly.
Dr. Sekibo told the people that a clause in the infamous law empowered the governor to unilaterally use thirty percent of the state's budget as he so wishes without recourse to due process.
 "This law which was passed by your own son, Tonye Harry meant that for the current budget of N450 billion, Governor Amaechi would have to pocket N150 billion which represents 30% to spend the way he deems fit" he told the people, noting that the action of the Tonye Harry led assembly negates the ideas of representation.
 "This clearly shows that the lots in the Assembly do not represent the people but rather the governor.  If they represented the people and sought their opinion, I believe that no sane people would consent to such law which is a direct license to steal the people's money" he declared.
"This collaboration to steal the people's money is being perpetrated because they know that once they are out of office, the EFCC would swoop on them hence they have to steal as much as they can," he said.
 Dr. Sekibo stated that he found it necessary to inform the people of Degema, since the lead character in the Procurement Act saga was no other than one of their own, Tonye Harry, speaker of the state Assembly.
 In his reaction, a youth leader and Chairman of ACN in Degema local Government Area, Mr. D. Blessing thanked Sekibo for what he called "a timely visit to a rejected town that is flourishing with milk and honey".
 He noted with regret that Degema gave birth to states like Bayelsa, Abia, Imo and the rest but that the town was still a shadow of it's old self.
 "We have the speaker, the third most powerful man in the state yet there is nothing to show for it.  All we have is organized criminality" he said promising that the people of Degema shall use the ACN broom (their votes) to "sweep the PDP into the Sombreiro River.